5 ms·

I'm often very critical of FB, but this approach makes absolute sense. Australia is demanding payment for every shared news story so FB decides it no longer all

by frob 6y ago

I'm often very critical of FB, but this approach makes absolute sense. Australia is demanding payment for every shared news story so FB decides it no longer allows the sharing of news stories. This is like if politicians were shocked that raising cigarette taxes resulted in a drop in cigarette sales. FB now has an explicit monetary incentive NOT to allow news in AU and it is a direct result of government actions.

sigstoat 6y ago
> This is like if politicians were shocked that raising cigarette taxes resulted in a drop in cigarette sales. they go back and forth, at their convenience, on whether or not taxing things causes less of the thing to be produced.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  > whether or not taxing things causes less of the thing to be produced. It causes less to be consumed and this is part of New Zealand’s strategy to make the country (tobacco) smoke free. The numbers shown below are a little misleading as the black market increases as the tax rises, as the link notes. ‘The collective impact of the initiatives that make up New Zealand’s tobacco control programme, including tobacco excise tax, is having the desired impact on smoking rates which are trending down. Among Māori, daily smoking prevalence fell from 39.2 percent to 37.7 percent (1.5 percent) between 2006/7 and 2011/12, but during the period of annual tobacco excise increases they fell from 37.7 percent to 31.2 percent in 2017/18 (6.5 percent) –a substantial acceleration in the decrease in prevalence.’ https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/information-release/cabinet-paper-1-january-2020-tobacco-excise-tax-increase-redacted.pdf https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/informatio...
  - sigstoat 6y ago
    > It causes less to be consumed obviously. and yet politicians forget that when they're not talking about sin taxes.
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      ... And now I get your point.
actuator 6y ago
I haven't used FB in 7 years but I wonder if FB will become a much better platform in Australia after the news ban, with just posts/photos from friends and less noise.
- criley2 6y ago
  Apparently all the news, government, politician stuff got removed, but all the conspiracy, 5G-allergy, anti-vax, stuff stayed up. I wouldn't bet that banning news will reduce the noise. Instead I think it will create a vacuum for even worse noise to fill.
- jkrems 6y ago
  The problem is that the substitution isn't always posts from friends. It could be posts from websites that don't qualify as reliable news sources. That doesn't have to be true but I don't think it's a clear win for average FB feed quality in Australia.
- mirkules 6y ago
  Sharing screenshots of news sites? Copy-pasting text verbatim or non-verbatim? Any number of ways users can - and will - get around it to maintain the toxic environment. Just look at Twitter.
- Axien 6y ago
  Congrats on not using FB. Personally, I would pay NOT to have news on my FB feed. I want to see pictures of your kids and hear updates about your life ... not your thoughts on whatever political issues in in the news today. So yea, it may actually make it better. FB considers "engagement" as all-important. But engagement occurs most frequently when someone sends out a controversial news article. It devalues the service and makes it a less enjoyable experience.
- anotherevan 6y ago
  I've never quite understood the, "Facebook would be so much better without news," comments I've been seeing the last few days. I follow ~60 people on FB, most of whom I know IRL. I'm pretty ruthless in unfollowing those that are noisy with memes or other junky stuff. I'm also conservative with the groups and pages I subscribe to. You have the controls to curate what goes into your Facebook feed. So the, "So much better," remarks feels like someone flailing around fecklessly when they actually have the power. Anecdotally I've noticed very little change in my feed since the change here in the Antipodes.

by frob 6y ago

sigstoat 6y ago

> This is like if politicians were shocked that raising cigarette taxes resulted in a drop in cigarette sales. they go back and forth, at their convenience, on whether or not taxing things causes less of the thing to be produced.

lostlogin 6y ago
> whether or not taxing things causes less of the thing to be produced. It causes less to be consumed and this is part of New Zealand’s strategy to make the country (tobacco) smoke free. The numbers shown below are a little misleading as the black market increases as the tax rises, as the link notes. ‘The collective impact of the initiatives that make up New Zealand’s tobacco control programme, including tobacco excise tax, is having the desired impact on smoking rates which are trending down. Among Māori, daily smoking prevalence fell from 39.2 percent to 37.7 percent (1.5 percent) between 2006/7 and 2011/12, but during the period of annual tobacco excise increases they fell from 37.7 percent to 31.2 percent in 2017/18 (6.5 percent) –a substantial acceleration in the decrease in prevalence.’ https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/information-release/cabinet-paper-1-january-2020-tobacco-excise-tax-increase-redacted.pdf https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/informatio...
- sigstoat 6y ago
  > It causes less to be consumed obviously. and yet politicians forget that when they're not talking about sin taxes.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    ... And now I get your point.

actuator 6y ago

I haven't used FB in 7 years but I wonder if FB will become a much better platform in Australia after the news ban, with just posts/photos from friends and less noise.

criley2 6y ago
Apparently all the news, government, politician stuff got removed, but all the conspiracy, 5G-allergy, anti-vax, stuff stayed up. I wouldn't bet that banning news will reduce the noise. Instead I think it will create a vacuum for even worse noise to fill.
jkrems 6y ago
The problem is that the substitution isn't always posts from friends. It could be posts from websites that don't qualify as reliable news sources. That doesn't have to be true but I don't think it's a clear win for average FB feed quality in Australia.
mirkules 6y ago
Sharing screenshots of news sites? Copy-pasting text verbatim or non-verbatim? Any number of ways users can - and will - get around it to maintain the toxic environment. Just look at Twitter.
Axien 6y ago
Congrats on not using FB. Personally, I would pay NOT to have news on my FB feed. I want to see pictures of your kids and hear updates about your life ... not your thoughts on whatever political issues in in the news today. So yea, it may actually make it better. FB considers "engagement" as all-important. But engagement occurs most frequently when someone sends out a controversial news article. It devalues the service and makes it a less enjoyable experience.
anotherevan 6y ago
I've never quite understood the, "Facebook would be so much better without news," comments I've been seeing the last few days. I follow ~60 people on FB, most of whom I know IRL. I'm pretty ruthless in unfollowing those that are noisy with memes or other junky stuff. I'm also conservative with the groups and pages I subscribe to. You have the controls to curate what goes into your Facebook feed. So the, "So much better," remarks feels like someone flailing around fecklessly when they actually have the power. Anecdotally I've noticed very little change in my feed since the change here in the Antipodes.